![]() ![]() To quote Michael Stipe: I’m sorry!) Are we ready to explore 100 of R.E.M.’s best songs? Let’s begin the begin. There are so many great songs here! (As well as a fair number of songs I had to leave off. is often overlooked in favor of less significant acts, or generally taken for granted as a band who became omnipresent only after the larger culture caught up with them a full decade into their career.įor this list, I’ve tried my best to take in the full scope of R.E.M.’s 29-year recording career, from their modest beginnings in Athens, Georgia in the early ’80s to their gradual indie fame in the late ’80s, to their “imperial” period in the early ’90s to their troubled but often rewarding post-Bill Berry period in the late ’90s and beyond. What is now commonplace had to be dreamt up by bands like R.E.M.Īnd yet when people look back at this time, R.E.M. played as big of a role as any band in the manifest destiny that was early ’80s indie rock, traveling to dozens of towns where previously there were no punk clubs or garage bands and showing that it was possible to exist outside of the corporate music infrastructure. But, honestly, this is merely an excuse to explore this band’s deep catalogue, which still sounds timeless but also seems weirdly underrated. March 12 marks the 30th anniversary of R.E.M.’s seventh album, their most successful, Out Of Time. ![]() They wrote the book for this kind of music, and then re-wrote it several more times. ![]() Beyond simply writing brilliant songs, R.E.M. Not only did they make great albums - and they did this more frequently than nearly every other band of their generation - they invented the indie-band prototype that is still being propagated today, even by younger generations that might not have direct knowledge of their music. ![]() They are simply one of the best and most important bands this country has ever produced. in the history of American indie music, it is impossible to be hyperbolic. ![]()
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